by Doug Sweeney | August 20th, 2018

At long last, the first volume of the Dutch Reformed Translation Society’s English edition of Mastricht is available for purchase. Translated by Todd Rester of Queen’s University Belfast (Northern Ireland), edited by Joel Beeke of Puritan Reformed Theological Seminary (Grand Rapids, Michigan), it offers a great introduction to Reformed orthodoxy and makes available in English Jonathan Edwards’ favorite book. In addition to two prefaces–one by Rester, one by Beeke–its front matter features an introduction to Mastricht’s life and work by our friend Adriaan Neele and an English translation of the funeral oration preached for Mastricht by his university colleague Henricus Pontanus (1706, reprinted in some Latin editions of Mastricht’s magnum opus).

Only two sections of Mastricht’s work have appeared in English before: A Treatise on Regeneration, which was published here and here, and The Best Method of Preaching, released in 2013 as the first fruit of the Rester edition of Mastricht’s TPT and included in the current volume as well.

Mastricht (1630-1706) is widely acclaimed as one of the best theologians in the Calvinist tradition, and his Theoretico-Practica Theologia (1699) is his best work. A seventeenth-century Dutchman in the school of Gisbertus Voetius (1589-1676) at Utrecht University, he presented Reformed theology with academic precision as well as pastoral sensitivity and practical application. For a book-length introduction in English to Mastricht, see this monograph by Neele.

As Edwards wrote to his student and colleague, the Rev. Joseph Bellamy, in 1747, Francis Turretin (1623-1687, a Genevan Calvinist) is excellent “on polemical divinity; on the Five Points [of Dordtian Calvinism], and all other controversial points; and is much larger in these than Mastricht; and is better for one that desires only to be thoroughly versed in controversies. But take Van Mastricht for divinity in general, doctrine, practice, and controversy; or as an universal system of divinity; and it is much better than Turretin, or any other book in the world, excepting the Bible, in my opinion” (Letters and Personal Writings, WJE Online Vol. 16). High praise indeed.

If you enjoy scholastic theology and want a better feel for Edwards’ intellectual world, read this work and stay tuned for its 6 remaining volumes.

by Edwards Center | July 6th, 2018

The Andrew Fuller Center for Baptist Studies at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (SBTS) and the Jonathan Edwards Center Germany at Heidelberg University will co-host a conference on Biblical Interpretation and Early Transatlantic Evangelicalism.

The speakers include the conference hosts: the Director of the JE Center Germany, Jan Stievermann, and the Director of the Andrew Fuller Center, Michael Haykin. Joining them is a team of world-class scholars in the field (including notable Edwards scholars): Douglas Sweeney, Ken Minkema, Isabel Rivers, Bruce Hindmarsh, Crawford Gribben, Adriaan Neele, and Robert Brown.

The objective of the conference aims to bring the historiography of early transatlantic evangelicalism together with the history of biblical interpretation. The goal is to understand the exegesis of various eighteenth-century exegetes in their intellectual, cultural, and religious contexts.

To learn more about the conference speakers, schedule, and to register, visit the conference website.

by Doug Sweeney | November 9th, 2017

The long-awaited Edwards Encyclopedia is here. With nearly 400 entries by 169 scholars, as well as a “Foreword” by George Marsden, it is a culmination of many years of labor in New Haven as well as the spread of Edwards studies during the past generation through a wide array of scholarly institutions around the world.

I and several of my students have contributed to this volume. In the interest of fair play, I will keep my comments brief.

This landmark volume features well-known scholars writing on topics about which they have already published books: Robert Brown on “Biblical Languages (Hebrew and Greek),” Ronald Story on “Charity,” Rhys Bezzant on “Ecclesiology,” Ava Chamberlain on “Elizabeth Tuttle Edwards (b. 1645),” Jan Stievermann on “German Pietism,” Thomas Kidd on “Great Awakening,” Sang Hyun Lee on “Habit,” Oliver Crisp on “Idealism,” Seng-Kong Tan on “Incarnation,” Gerald McDermott on “Islam,” Donald Whitney on “Piety,” Ray Yeo on “Regeneration,” Stephen Stein on “Scripture (Exegetical Sources),” David Kling on “Second Great Awakening,” Terrence Erdt on “Sense of the Heart,” Amy Plantinga Pauw on “Trinity,” and Stephen R. C. Nichols on “Typology,” for example.

Perhaps more importantly, it also features lesser-known, up-and-coming scholars treating topics on which they have learned a great deal: Allan Hedberg on “Aging,” Ryan Hoselton on “William Ames,” Joseph Tyrpak on “David Brainerd,” Reita Yazawa on “Covenant,” David Komline on “Sereno Edwards Dwight (1786-1850),” David Barshinger on “Hermeneutics,” Roy Mellor on “An Humble Inquiry (1749),” Craig Biehl on “Merit of Christ,” Daniel Cooley on “Edwards Amasa Park (1808-1900),” Jon Hinkson on “Providence,” Ryan Griffith on “Spiritual Gifts”—this list could go on and on.

Several contributors wrote many different entries–most importantly Ken Minkema, Associate Editor of the volume and Executive Editor of the Edwards Center at Yale.

As the editors have written in the volume’s “Introduction,” the Encyclopedia “fills an essential gap” in reference works about Edwards and his world. It corrects “certain stubborn errors or myths about Edwards’s life and those of his family and acquaintance[s].” It also provides “succinct synopses of topics large and small, well known and little known in Edwards’s life, as well as easily referenced sketches of the people and events of his times, any or all of which can be followed up in more depth by consulting the suggested readings at the end of each entry” (p. x).

Stout, Minkema, and Neele hope to publish an expanded, online version of this work, which will include new entries on subjects identified by readers as important to the study of Edwards’ life, times, and legacies in the future. So our thanks should go today both to those who have made this letterpress book possible and those who will engage and improve it in days ahead.

This previously unprinted sermon series on Jesus’ frightening parable of the wise and foolish virgins (Matthew 25) is a gold mine for Edwards scholars and lay Christians alike. Preached in 1737-38, between the Connecticut Valley revival (1734-35) and New England’s Great Awakening (1740-42), it focused Northampton’s attention for a period of several weeks on the differences between true Christians and “hypocrites” (those who fooled others, and often themselves, about their standing before God)—a theme that would occupy Edwards for many years into the future, when he used this sermon series in writing his better-known spiritual treatises on the Distinguishing Marks of a Work of the Spirit of God (1741), Some Thoughts concerning the Present Revival of Religion in New England (1743), and Religious Affections (1746).

Edited by the standards of the letterpress edition of The Works of Jonathan Edwards (26 volumes, Yale University Press, 1957-2008), these sermons are prefaced with a rudimentary chapter by Wilson Kimnach (general editor of Edwards’ sermons at Yale’s Jonathan Edwards Center) on the homiletical Edwards, “Edwards the Preacher” (13 pgs.), and a slightly longer chapter by Bryan McCarthy (formerly an editorial assistant at the Jonathan Edwards Center, now a doctoral student at Oxford) on the sermons’ “Historical Context” (19 pgs.).

Smartly presented, helpfully indexed, and priced to sell ($25), this volume should make it into the library of every serious Edwards scholar and many fans as well.